A Tale of Two Jacks
by steelcrash
Summary: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's EndDoctor Who crossover. Captain Jack Sparrow meets Captain Jack Harkness.


I don't own Captain Jack Sparrow, the Black Pearl or Captain Jack Harkness. They belong, respectively, to the Walt Disney Company and the BBC. I'm just borrowing them for a while. A Tale of Two Jacks He remembered the pain, and the dying. Then waking to nothing but the blazing whiteness of a place he couldn't name. Always ready for his next adventure, he started to walk. Over the dunes of sand, which he pondered briefly before going on, he spied a ship. Not his ship, or any ship he had ever served on, or traveled aboard. A sailing ship. Black, from stem to stern, with the Jolly Roger flying high on her mast. He smiled. Just his luck to find such a thing. As he closed in on the ship, he could hear yelling. Incomprehensible, and the man the noise was coming from looked more than a little confused. If anything, he looked like he himself felt. "Ahoy!" Abruptly, mid-stride, Captain Jack Sparrow halted. And all the copies of himself blinked out of existence, bringing him back to his reality, devoid of everything but the screaming voices raging inside his own head and his empty, landlocked Black Pearl. He scurried to the rail, shielding his eyes, looking about for the source of his salvation. Staring up from the sand was a man. "Eh?" Jack grunted. "Captain Jack Harkness," he yelled. "Who are you?" The other Captain Jack pulled back from the ship's railing, eyes narrowed, looking him up and down. After several moments of this, he stepped up to the railing, sniffed. "Captain Jack Sparrow," he said. Then promptly went back to his scurrying and shrieking. Harkness raised an eyebrow, watching the spectacle of the man, who, now that he had received a closer look, pirate, he corrected, was trying to make ready his vessel. Not one to stand idly by, not anymore, he once again hollered. "Hey--need any help up there?" Again, the pirate stopped. He grabbed a rope and threw it over the side, leaving it up to the other man to join him, if he wanted. Harkness took the offer, hauling himself up to the deck, where Sparrow was running about, hollering orders to a crew that wasn't there. "Um. . .what would you like me to do?"Harkness asked. Sparrow stopped, considering. "Mate, you can help by staying out of my way." Off he scampered, leaving Harkness alone. ----- Sparrow occasionally stole a look at his new companion, who was parked on the stairs up to the quarterdeck. Definitely a new development in his stay in purgatory, also known as the hell that was Davey Jones' locker. He caught Harkness staring back as he was fighting with a rope to move the foreboom, but he made no effort to get up and help. He was about to yell something nasty, but never got the chance as the deck heaved and the ship began to move, seemingly under her own power. The pirate ran to the rail, and Harkness joined him. The ship moved over the sand, but something was moving the Pearl -- crabs, thousands of them, spilling over each other, coming up out of the sand, propelling the ship toward the water, and freedom. Just as the ship edged into the water, Sparrow turned to his companion. "Better make peace with your maker, mate, because s' about to get very ugly. . ." The Pearl crashed into the water, pulled out into the deep. Then she tilted, and rolled under. ----- Sparrow spluttered as he expelled water from his burning lungs, struggling to breathe. He struggled to sit up, but strong hands held him still long enough for him to regain his breath. He looked up, seeing his companion from before, who finally helped him up. "You gave me a pretty good scare, Captain Sparrow," he said. "Well lad, I'm fine now, as you can very well see," Sparrow said, attempting to push Harkness away. "You're sure you're all right?" Harkness asked, flashing very white, very perfect teeth. Sparrow cocked an eyebrow, taking notice of this, finally giving Harkness a close-up once-over. He was clad in a plain white short-sleeved shirt, leather vest, pants and boots. Dark brown hair, blue eyes, completed with the perfect, distracting, disarming smile. "Fine, I'm fine. Unhand me." "Sure," Harkness said, letting go of the other man's arm. It took a moment for Sparrow to regain the shreds of his tattered dignity and composure, and to process the sudden introduction of a hundred unanswered questions into his already crowded mind. "Beings that I'm here and you're here by the same unfortunate circumstance, and being that I'm the captain of this vessel, which, without a crew, is now in need of one. Will you be my crew?" "Aye sir,"Harkness answered, whipping a salute and flashing his damnable smile again. Sparrow just hoped he wasn't getting in too deep. ----- It took some doing, but the two finally managed to get the ship whipped into some semblance of sailing condition. Sparrow was surprised by his companion's eagerness and energy, and lack of criticism. Which had him positively flummoxed. "Capable" more than described his new crewman, and he wondered what he had finally done to have the gods smile upon him and deliver to him someone who, so far, hadn't complained, called him names, questioned his parentage, or ability to sail a ship. Instead, it was the opposite. So far. Harkness had peppered him with a few questions, but once shown what to do, did it. 


End file.
